foot-soldiers, but so few horsemen that he was compelled to reject them all, both horse and foot, as useless for his purpose.[1023] As the conviction grew upon him that he must either quit the country or die in it, he felt also that in either case, if he left it in its present unsettled condition, the whole labour of the Crusade would be lost, and thus that a truce on almost any terms had become a necessity for the realm’s sake as well as for his own.[1024] He therefore asked that Abu Bekr might be sent to him once more. Through this man the king intimated his willingness, if Saladin still absolutely insisted on the restitution of Ascalon to the Moslems, to accept a money indemnity for the expense which he had incurred in fortifying the place, and to abide by the other conditions which he had formerly agreed upon with Safadin.[1025] On the morrow—Friday, August 28—Bedr-ed-din Dolderim, the emir in command of the Moslem advanced guard, sent to ask the Sultan whether he might accede to a request which had been made to him by five Frank officers, one of them an intimate counsellor of Richard’s—probably the bishop of Salisbury, Hubert Walter[1026]—for a parley. With Saladin’s consent the parley took place; and the same night Bedr-ed-din in person reported to his sovereign that, according to these men, Richard now consented to give up Ascalon [Sidenote: _Aug. 28_] unconditionally. Saladin refused to proceed further without some security that on this point the king would not go back from his word. Next day Bedr-ed-din announced that he had received, by a sure hand, Richard’s pledge on the subject. Saladin then called his council together and with them drew up the details of the partition of the land. The king was to have Joppa and its dependent territory, except Ramlah, Lydda, Ibelin, Yebna, and Mirabel; also Acre, Haïfa, Arsuf, and Caesarea, with all their dependencies except Nazareth and Safforia. These terms were drawn up in writing and carried back to Richard by an envoy who came from him on the afternoon of Saturday, August 29, and returned to Joppa with a Moslem colleague next day. Richard, when the terms were read to him, denied that he had ever withdrawn his claim to compensation; but as “the persons who had gone to Dolderim” all declared that the thing was so, he answered: “If I did say it, I will not go back from my word. Tell the Sultan I agree to these conditions; only I appeal to his generosity, and acknowledge that if he grants me anything further, it will be of his own bounty.” He then sent the envoys on to Safadin, to beg that he would obtain from Saladin the cession of Ramlah.[1027]